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Overview
A virtuoso of portraits and scenes of the puritan working class with a sharp eye for depicting the truth of his subjects, William Strang (1859-1921) was a revered draughtsman and painter; however his most lucrative and productive mode of creation was printmaking, an integral part of his career throughout his lifetime. Critics such as Maurice Harold Grant noted Strang as a printmaker who was ‘keenly observant’ in all stages required of printmaking, particularly in his ability to transfer his immaculately drawn line into an equally impressive bitten plate.
Born in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1859 to working-class parents, Strang moved to London in 1875 at the age of 16. The following year he enrolled at the Slade School of Art, where he studied under the French realist, Alphonse Legros. Strang excelled particularly in Legros’ recently introduced etching class, serving as Assistant Master in the class for two years after graduating. Strang’s style was heavily influenced by Legros; both artists having working-class backgrounds, leading to a strong undercurrent of puritan social justice in many of Strang’s works. Early in his career Strang made many etchings of working class life in a realist manner, as well as works of allegory and delightfully macabre fantasy. An increase in requests for commissions after the mid-1890s meant that Strang focused more on portraiture and painting. However, he still continued to work as a printmaker throughout his career – becoming President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1918. A month before his death in 1921, Strang was elected an Engraver Member of the Royal Academy.
Strang is perhaps best known for his portraits of famous artistic and literary sitters such as the art historian and curator Campbell Dodgson, and author Rudyard Kipling, (both etchings in Te Papa’s collection: registration numbers 1968-0001-43 and 1956-0001-17, respectively). While many of his portraits were commissioned, Strang’s artistic preoccupations did not lie with capturing the ‘beauty’ of the sitter. Instead he picks out the most human traits of the individual, highlighting their idiosyncracies and favouring honesty and psychological intensity over glamour and handsomeness.
Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852–1936) was a politician, writer, journalist and adventurer. He was the first socialist member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, founder of the Scottish Labour Party and the National Party of Scotland: indeed, he was a seminal figure in the early 20th century Scottish nationalist movement. Prior to his introduction to socialism and his foray into politics in 1883, Cunninghame Graham spent much of his youth travelling overseas, earning himself the title of adventurer.
Cunninghame Graham was also Strang’s model for a volume of etched illustrations to Don Quixote published in 1902. It was likely Strang and Cunninghame Graham’s joint interest in socialist ideology and the latter's significance as a writer that drew Strang towards him as a model for his series of etchings of Don Quixote, as well as Cunninghame Graham’s Spanish ancestry on his mother's side. Five years before the publication of these illustrations, this essence of adventure one might associate with Quixote is already evident in the daring gleam this portrait exhibits. It is an etching that has been finished in drypoint with most of the burr being removed.
Sources:
Laurence Binyon, William Strang; Catalogue of his Etched Work, (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906), pp. vii – xvii.
M.H. Grant, A Dictionary of British Etchers, (London: Rockliff, 1953), pp. 196-197.
National Galleries Scotland:
Wikipedia:
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art January 2018